Saturday, April 20, 2019

Describing Alcoholism as a spiritual malady in meetings? This could be "leading with the chin" and not helpful to new commers

I've been to a lot of meetings over my 26 years sober in AA. Another "party line" that people like to repeat in AA is how alcoholism is not only an problem of mind and body but a spiritual malady also. While being correct in my view it's not a good idea to talk about that a lot in meetings, especially meetings with many new commers.


To people who like to go on about that I ask ... please show me in the Big Book or in the 12 and 12 where it goes into detail describing Alcoholism as a spiritual malady and then you can justify going on about that in meetings.
 
It's a popular party line in the meetings to say it's also a spiritual malady but it is not useful to start telling that to new commers. That is why it is only briefly mentioned once in one sentence in the 4th step portion of our Big Books first 164 pages.
 
There is however an entire section called the Doctors Opinion that goes into depth describing the physical allergy - phenomenon of craving part of alcoholism.
 
There is an entire chapter called "More About Alcoholism" that goes into depth about the mental obsession portion of alcoholism .... as AA describes Alcoholism
 
Carl Jung's writings to this effect seem to be correct due to the success of AA but Carl Jung's literature is not a part of the AA program. However interesting it may be his writings are not officially AA . When first working with newcommers I never go on about alcoholism being a spiritual malady ... that is what AA calls "leading with the chin". Its' borderline evangelical which drives some from AA and has them telling their friends that AA is a bunch of Jesus freaks and never going back, possibly dying drunk having been improperly introduced to the program. It is best to stick with what AA says in the chapter "Working with Others." We describe how the problem of body and mind worked in  the our problem drinking and how we discovered that we were alcoholic. Later on when a newcommer is curious about how we recovered, then we talk about spirituality and working the steps - not before talking about what AA says alcoholism is and how we could not control our drinking because of it.
 
I have sponsored many men over the years and I use the chapter "Working with Others" as my guideline. It specifically says to NOT talk about God or spirituality in the beginning when approaching a new alcoholic to help. Be careful, if that's what you are doing you might be driving alcoholics away who could use a more delicate approach to God and spirituality.